Behind the Holiday Fling in Taylor Swift’s “’tis the damn season”

For many of us, the holidays mean returning home, which can be a comfort. For others though, it can dig up memories that we’d prefer to forget–or habits we wish we’d break. The latter is the case for Taylor Swift in “’tis the damn season.”

Swift takes on the plight of a woman cycling through a fling with someone in her hometown. The holidays mean yet another chapter in their long and complicated relationship.

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Behind the Meaning

The accompaniment on this song is sparse, leaving plenty of room for Swift to tell her prosaic story. In the opening lines, Swift lays down the ground rules of this on-again-off-again relationship. Swift has a knack for saying a lot without saying much at all.

If I wanted to know who you were hanging with while I was gone I would have asked you, she sings, making it clear that their relationship goes on a complete pause while Swift’s character is away. They are on a don’t ask don’t tell basis.

In the next breath, she reveals that–despite trying to keep things simple–there is a hurt felt between the two of them that won’t be easily fixed. There’s an ache in you put there by the ache in me, she sings.

In the chorus, she levels with the listener, detailing the complicated emotions behind this relationship. It’s at the same time temporary and elaborate. Their history makes it impossible to truly chalk it up to a fling.

So we could call it even
You could call me babe for the weekend
‘Tis the damn season, write this down
I’m stayin’ at my parents’ house
And the road not taken looks real good now
And it always leads to you in my hometown

It isn’t until the bridge that the listener learns the real stakes behind the back-and-forth Swift and her lover are entangled in. She can’t turn her back on them because that would mean giving up something that is scarcely found in her life these days: real, unselfish connection. I’ll go back to L.A. and the so-called friends / Who’ll write books about me, if I ever make it / And wonder about the only soul who can tell which smiles I’m faking, she sings.

There are many songs about coming home for the holidays, but unlike most of them, Swift uses Christmastime simply as a backdrop for a larger story. Though this song is intrinsically linked to the holidays, the heartache Swift sings is just as palpable year-round.

Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame